/' \ I ""'" , 1 <'!, , , J ,liP ......"t ",,-" ...." · f ." 4f \lr I ð' .1:<.": , .J;. ,..... - J . ) J - , t 38 agan and Zoot Sims and John Bunch and Billv Exiner. You can't beat the perfection of Basie. He even talks the way he plays: one or two words take care of conversation for the month. Like when he saw the distance he'd have to go to reach his piano on this tiny, miserable stage we were working on somewhere out \Vest. 'Man, that's a long walk,' he said." Bennett laughs, and tells the waiter, a diminutive carry-over from the old Amalfi, that he doesn't have time for espresso but that he will see him soon. He waves to Riz7u to. KITING IN THE PARK It is ten-thirtv the next morning, and one of those dancIng blue New York days: the shadows have knIfe- edges, and the SIdewalks are full of diamonds. Bennett is standing with Joanna at the curb In front of his apartment house. She is holding on to his right index finger, and she barely .-. -- þ ...... .... ..... O )9"""-'-- . . . -,. . tl' "t: CQ:P:f i K'''c>' .:.... ,, ...' ...:) tops his knees. They are headed for the East Meadow, in Central Park, where a sequence of a quasi-documentary about Bennett's New York life is to be filmed. One sequence has already been done in his apartment, and another will he filmed tomorrow night at a concert he is giving in Alice Tully Hall. Joanna is in a blue knitted jump- er with a matching top, and Bennett has on a gleaming white safari suit and a dark-olive shirt open at the neck. "Daddy, let's go see if the flowers we planted are still growing," Joanna pIpes. Bennett hunkers heSIde some shrubs next to the huilding's door and rubs the dirt with his hand. There is nothing there. "Whynot? "\Thynot? \Vhynot?" Joanna chants. Bennett looks sheepish. "1 guess we forgot to water it, or something. But we'll try again." A black 1imousine the length of the ,.. .,...,....--- ....--..-. JoW")( ...... A /' ./ - ....., "'" - 4 . <<..: h 1 ::: " Lt '" '- r ",. '",. :;: !!I;\ *" -I" " , "*' . I *1.: 1} ---. \ . . ,$; -t "H>< :. .:' "if. .' .' : ... ;.. 'I( one Jelly Roll Morton said he had to take to Central Park to turn around pulls up at the curb, and Bennett and Joanna get in Bennett rents the car when he is in town. It has a red shag carpet, and the jump seats are separated by a cabinet containing a bar, a radio, and a tiny television set. Bennett tells his driver, a squat, cheerful man named Caesar, to stop at a shop spe- cializing In kites, at Second A venue and Eighty-fourth Street. Two cam- eramen and a grip follow the 1imousine in a cab Joanna diddles with the tele- vision, switching from channel to chan- nel, and Bennett tells her to slow down or she won't be able to see anything at all. She pays no attention. At the shop, Bennett and one of the can1eramen choose a couple of big, semitransparent German kites that look 1ike hirds. Ben- nett IS all thulnbs, hut he manages to get one of the kites élssembled by the time the limousine pulls up at Fifth Avenue and Ninety-eighth Street. The East Meadow stretches from Ninety- seventh to 10 1st Street and is vague- ly bowl-shaped. Joanna sails in the south gate ahead of Bennett and, sens- ing the expanse in front of her, takes off up the Meadow, her legs going like a sandpiper's. Bennett, laughing and shouting, catches her at 100th Street The cameramen station themselves on a low rise on one side of the Meadow. ..A. time follows that recalls the mad footage in "A Hard Day's Night" in which the Beatles race wildly and aim- lessly back and forth across an immense field. There is almost no wind, but Bennett gets the kite twelve feet into the air, dnd he and Joanna run up the Meadow. The kite crashes. Joanna picks it up and runs south, Bennett gal- loping after her. They go up the Mead- ow, down the Meadow, across the Mead- ow. Joanna maintains her speed, but Bennett begins to puff. The camera- men declare that they have enough film, and Bennett laughs and wipes his hrow. He picks up his jacket from the grass and flings it and the kite across one shoulder. Joanna latches on to his index finger and tows him back to the car. A LIGHT LUNCH Before he showers and changes his clothes at the apartment, Bennett asks Edith to fix a light lunch. Joanna is fed in the kitchen and packed off for a nap. Bennett is due at three o'clock at a studio on Christopher Street, where he will rehearse with the Rub} Braff- George Barnes Quartet. The quartet is to accompany him at Alice Tully Hall. Edith sets the table in the studio and brings in a chicken salad and a large glass of boysenberry juice. "Man, ten-